OnePlus 8 hands-on review

Hardware

Naturally, the OnePlus 8 rocks the latest and greatest from Qualcomm - the Snapdragon 865 chipset paired with an external Snapdragon X55 modem working on 4G and 5G bands. There's no support for the 5G mmWave but it does offer WiFi 6. Sadly, both wireless networks are scarce - only a handful of countries have limited 5G connectivity while WiFi 6 routers are rare and expensive for now.

And since the chipset now supports LPDDR5 memory, OnePlus is also making the jump from LPDDR4X memory with the 8 Pro but the vanilla 8 is still running LPDDR4X memory, which is 50% slower and has 45% higher power consumption compared to the new generation. Though, we don't think the general user would notice any difference. Anyway, you have the choice between 8 and 12GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 128 or 256GB of UFS 3.0 internal storage.

This is not the first Snapdragon 865-powered smartphone we've laid hands on so performance is largely predictable. We will run the full set of benchmarks once the device enters the reviewing stage.

Flpddr

When talking about speed, we can't miss mentioning the under-display fingerprint reader too. Even though OnePlus didn't say anything about it, which in turn means that it's the same as before, we found it fast and reliable once again. For the short period of time we used it, we don't have any complaints whatsoever.

Moving onto the battery department, the OnePlus 8 once again has a slightly smaller unit compared to the Pro version. The vanilla 8 has 4,300 mAh while the Pro offers 4,510 mAh. But when compared to its predecessor, the 7T, the increase is more than welcome. Charging speeds haven't increased, though, and the phone employs the same Warp Charge 30T with a 30W power output.

The wireless charging and the reverse wireless charging features are the two other things missing from the vanilla 8.

Camera configuration and samples

Following the footsteps of its predecessor, the OnePlus 8 is also bringing a triple camera setup but instead of a proper telephoto lens, the 8 is now offering a 2MP macro shooter. For zooming, it can crop out from the main 48MP. We are yet to see how well this one works compared to the standard telephoto lens from last year. The Galaxy S20 and S20+ went down that road with its 64MP sensors used for cropping out and we found that it does the job just as well as the proper telephoto lens but they image sensors weren't Quad Bayer.

Unfortunately, though, the 48MP sensor used for the OnePlus 8 isn't the same as on the 8 Pro. This one here is the older generation Sony IMX586 image sensor with the 0.8µm pixels instead of the big 1.12µm pixels used in the Sony IMX689. You still get OIS and big f/1.75 aperture though. Here are some samples with the main camera and some 2x zoom photos as well.

Main camera samples

2x zoom samples with the main camera

The ultra-wide unit offers 16MP images, not so wide 116 degrees field of view and f/2.2 aperture while the macro shooter has 2MP resolution, big 1.75µm pixels and f/2.4 aperture. Take a loot at some ultra-wide snaps too.

Ultra-wide camera samples

A 16MP front-facing shooter sits inside the hole of the display offering f/2.0 aperture and 1µm pixels. The same unit used in the OnePlus 7 and 7T Pro on the pop-up mechanism. And a couple of selfies too.

Selfie samples: Normal • Portrait mode • Normal • Portrait mode

Oh, and don't miss on the macro shots as too.

Macro camera samples

OnePlus is boasting a couple of new shooting modes and features such as Smart Pet Capture and enhanced video recording capabilities suitable for content creators.